New Delhi: Congress on Tuesday launched a scathing attack on Arvind Kejriwal and his team without naming him, saying they are rabble rousers and front men for rabid anti-Congress forces and taunted BJP for striking "overt and covert alliances" to defame the ruling party.

In the latest edition of its mouthpiece, the party also took a dig at Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in a veiled manner for levelling "prima facie absurd charges" against the Congress leadership.

The editorial of "Congress Sandesh" attributed the recent attacks on party leaders on the issue of corruption to polls in BJP-ruled Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh and criticised the "hit and run" attitude of the "self-appointed guardians of morality and probity".

Noting that anti-Congressism has been a prominent feature of the country's political opposition, the editorial said, "Our political opponents strike all kinds of unholy alliances - overt and covert - to achieve their goal of denigrating, defaming and maligning our party".

"As elections for Gujarat and Himachal Pradesh have been announced, we witness a hyper level of activity on this front. ...They know that only way they can sully our image is through their lies and low level personal attacks.

"The beginning was made by those, who make pompous claims to be the best administrators and still betray a strange and malicious innocence while levelling prima facie absurd charges against our leadership," it said alluding to the allegations of Modi on alleged foreign expenditure on Sonia Gandhi's visits abroad, a charge later proved untrue.

Taking potshots apparently at civil society activists led by activist-turned politician Kejriwal, it said, "We have also seen the self-appointed guardians of morality and probity in public life. Their hit and run approach to so-called scams has proved beyond doubt that they crave just for media attention.

"They act in tandem although they tend to give impression that they are different entities. At their core they are at best mere rabble rousers and at worst they are the front men for rabid anti-Congress forces," it said.